Browsing by Author "Ogbulie, Toochukwu Ekwutosi"

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    Cytotoxic investigation of crude oil impact on selected crops via pre-planting and post-planting treatments
    (University of Oradea Publishing House, 2023) Oti, Nnenna Nnannaya; Ogbulie, Toochukwu Ekwutosi; Nwachukwu, Augusta Anuli; Madubuike, Mercy Ngozi
    Oil spills destroy farmlands with detrimental impact on agricultural crops, thereby deteriorating the health of humans and other animals that consume the crops from the polluted regions. Assays for this study were conducted between two soil groups polluted with 100 mL crude oil (A-soil polluted before planting [PB] and B-soil polluted two weeks after planting [PA]) within a period of 28 days from their pollution time; at Federal University of Technology, Owerri, Nigeria. The impact of oil spill on three edible plants (Allium cepa, Telfairia occidentalis and Zea mays) were evaluated through plant growth measurement, total chlorophyll test done by spectrophotometry of leaf samples and histo-anatomical investigations. Results obtained at the end of the experiment showed a decrease in plant height, leaf area and leaf number for all the polluted plants compared with their controls. However, plants grown on group A soil experienced delayed emergence and retarded growth, but survived better than plants grown on group B soil. The photomicrographs revealed alterations and anomalies in leaf structures for both polluted groups as compared to their control samples. A notable decline in total chlorophyll contents occurred amongst the plants in group B when compared to plants in group A. Therefore, this study deduced an elevated cytotoxic effect of crude oil in all the polluted crop samples, except for mild anomalies observed in the leaves of T. occidentalis in group A (UPB); which also showed no physical sign of crude oil pollution based on the non-observance of leaf yellowing, deformity or defoliation.